Leaving a job can be an emotional and stressful time. As you transition out of your current role and into a new opportunity, your LinkedIn profile becomes an important platform for communicating your career move in a professional manner. What you share on LinkedIn when exiting a job requires thought and care to protect your reputation and relationships.
The core of your message on LinkedIn should convey gratitude, highlight achievements, and signal your next step. Avoid negativity about your past employer and focus on the positives. Be strategic and purposeful in order to leave on good terms while enabling your network to champion your next endeavor.
Thank your colleagues, manager, and company
The first thing you should do is thank your manager, colleagues, and the company. Express your gratitude for the opportunities, mentorship, and experience you gained. Share specific things you appreciate about the people you worked with and projects you contributed to. This demonstrates maturity, professionalism, and respect for the role your employer played in your career development.
Even if you had challenges or did not part on the best terms, take the high road. You never know when you may cross paths again, so err on the side of graciousness. The way you exit an organization says a lot about your character and can impact future opportunities.
Highlight achievements and accomplishments
The next important piece is to recap meaningful contributions, achievements, and milestones from your time at the company. Share promotions you earned, skills you developed, successes with clients or projects, awards won, and quantifiable metrics that exhibit your work. This enables you to reflect on the positives and demonstrate the value you added.
While it’s not necessary to provide an exhaustive inventory, calling out noteworthy accomplishments solidifies your employer brand and talents. It also gives context around the experience you gained. Be factual and authentic without exaggeration.
Announce your next move
Once you have shared gratitude and achievements, you can reveal what’s next. State your new job title, company, and start date. If you do not have a new role secured yet, you can say you are pursuing new opportunities or indicate you are open to your network’s ideas and introductions.
Framing your transition in the context of personal or professional growth can also be effective. For example, “I’m moving on to a new challenge that builds on my skills in X” or “This role will enable me to deepen my experience in Y.”
Avoid negativity or venting about why you are leaving. Take the high road and maintain your professional brand. The announcement should be straightforward and focused on the future versus the past.
Expand your narrative
Beyond the basics, you may choose to expand your LinkedIn post with additional details, stories, or acknowledgements that personalize your message and fill in the narrative. However, you want to be careful not to overshare or provide excessive detail.
If your departure was under positive circumstances, you could share a thoughtful anecdote or inside joke that captures the spirit of your team. Or highlight a time you overcame a challenge that exemplifies skills gained.
You can shout out peers, mentors, or leaders who made an impact. Photos of fun offsite events or team celebrations can also memorialize great memories.
If your departure was difficult, focus on the positives and learnings versus any negativity. You do not need to explain the circumstances unless absolutely required to protect your reputation.
Mind your tone
The tone you use in your LinkedIn post is critical. While you may have strong emotions about your departure, you want to avoid venting, complaining, or bashing your employer. Any negativity or criticism reflects poorly on you, not them.
Even if your company treated you poorly, handled things badly, or were the cause of your exit, resist calling them out. Take the high ground as the bigger person. If your relationship soured, simply express thanks for the experience and move on.
Stay positive, gracious, and forward-focused. Similarly, avoid inserting passive aggressive nuances through word choice. Keep the tone upbeat, appreciative, and optimistic about what is to come.
Consider your audience
Keep in mind that your connections on LinkedIn include colleagues across your company and industry, including your managers. What you share will be visible to your team, leaders, peers, and broader network.
While being fully transparent about a difficult departure may be cathartic, oversharing negative emotions or details could damage relationships and reputations. Take care not to burn bridges or say something you may later regret.
Similarly, casting your employer in an overly negative light could discourage future prospects from wanting to hire you if the circumstances seem suspicious.
Time it thoughtfully
Wait to share your announcement until after your departure is formalized and clearly communicated internally. Posting too early could catch your manager and team off guard or reveal information before the company is ready.
Out of courtesy, allow your manager to inform your team and stakeholders first. Also be mindful of any confidentiality restrictions specified in any separation agreement limiting what you can disclose.
While exciting news is tempting to share, exercise patience so the sequence of communications happens properly. Also avoid posting so close to your last day that it seems rushed. Find the right cadence that fits your transition timeline.
Length and images
In terms of length, a few paragraphs is plenty to convey your key messages. Avoid an overly long manifesto. You want your post to take 1-2 minutes to read. Focus on the highlights versus providing your full backstory.
Including an image or two with your post can also add some visual interest. This could be a photo of your team, a project highlight, a company event, awards ceremony, or other professional snapshot that represents your time there.
Images help convey the experience and relationships built. Just be sure to abide by any company guidelines regarding sharing of photos or logos.
Customize for different audiences
While your core LinkedIn post should be factual, professional, and focused on the positives, you may want to customize the narrative a bit depending on the audience.
For close colleagues you worked with daily, it can make sense to share a more personal message via email or private group chat. This gives space for additional details, inside jokes, heartfelt thanks, and well wishes.
For leaders and stakeholders, an individual outreach may be warranted thanking them for the opportunity to work together and learn from them. Tailor the tone appropriately.
The key is to align your communication channels and level of detail with each relationship. Your broader LinkedIn network should receive a polished, professional post, while closer contacts may get additional color.
Update your employment status
As a final step, be sure to update your employment status and work experience section on your LinkedIn profile. Remove your previous role and add your new company and position once official. Keeping this accurate preserves your credibility.
You can also update your professional headline if desired to showcase your new focus. Update any job descriptions to use past tense for the prior roles.
Ensuring these core profile elements reflect your current circumstances keeps your LinkedIn presence honest and up to date.
Moving forward
How you communicate your job transition on LinkedIn is an important career moment. Be strategic, thoughtful, and focused on the high points as you navigate this milestone.
By leading with gratitude, staying positive, and framing your next chapter, you can gracefully move forward while strengthening your reputation and relationships.